A Series of Random Circumstances
by Majestic Waters
Summary: Ginny is having one baaad day, all stemming from her parents getting sick, and forcing her to stay at Hogwarts over Christmas vacation. A series of random circumstances force her to stumble upon a conspiracy that somehow involves her. Can Harry help her?


A Series of Random Circumstances

By Majestic Waters

"Ginny," **sniff**, " I'm sorry, but you're going to have to stay at," **sniffle**, "Hogwarts for Christmas vacation."

Ginny's eyebrows shot up into her hairline. "Why?"

Her mother's head shook sadly in the fireplace of the Gryffindor common room.

"I'm afraid Bernstein has caught a cold! And it's very," sniff, "contagious…"

Ginny's eyebrows climbed higher.

"But Bernstein is a **ghost**, Mum. You can't catch a cold from a ghost… can you?"

"You most certainly can, Ginevra," her mother severely intoned. "And **this** cold just happens to be **very** contagious. In fact…Ah- AH-CHOO! Gah…. Both your father and I are sick. It's better if you kids just stay at school this holiday. I'm sorry, Sweetie."

As her mother's head disappeared from the fireplace, Ginny slumped sadly in her chair. She had been counting on a Weasley Christmas to cheer her up after her owl had wandered into the Forbidden Forest and gotten fried by a Blast-Ended-Skrewt. And, oh! How she missed her Daddy!

Appalled at herself for thinking such a thing, Ginny stood, determined to do something. It was the Saturday before Christmas break, and tomorrow, all of her little friends would be boarding the Hogwarts Express, without her…

**No! Don't think like that!** She scolded herself. **You can make the best of this situation! There should be plenty of adventures to find in a magical school…even though you've never really had one before…. Harry always seems to find an adventure. **Ginny blushed, and forced the little twit from her mind. He had increasingly been popping up in her thoughts lately—imaginary Harry must have missed the memo: **I don't have a crush on Harry Potter, anymore! **And speaking of the devil…

Harry leisurely rolled down the stairs, yawning into one hand, and scratching his leg with the other. When he spotted Ginny standing in front of the fireplace, he jumped a bit before hastily smoothing down his messy black hair.

"Oh! Hey, Gin! What are you doing up so early?" Ginny looked down at her watch.

"It's 11: 45, Harry…" she stated blankly.

"That's still pretty early for a Saturday."

Ginny's eye twitched.

"For you, maybe…tsk. But if you must know, I was talking to my mother."

"Your mother?" he said, surprised. Harry stupidly looked around the common room, as if she might be hiding under a chair. "Where is she?"

Ginny rolled her eyes. "She **was** in the fireplace… but she's gone now. And took all of my Christmas cheer with her." Harry cocked his head to the side.

"Really? How did she do that?"

"She and Dad caught a cold from the ghoul, so she doesn't want Ron and me to come home for the holidays." Ginny sighed, slumping back down onto a poofy red couch. A look of excitement came to Harry's eyes.

"Ah! But it's not **so** bad, Gin. You and Ron will be here with me!" When Ginny didn't seem to be cheered up by this prospect, Harry approached her, cautiously. "Hey, now… don't get **too** excited." When she failed to respond once more, he sighed, and began to haul her up by the hand.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm attempting to take you on your first Christmas holiday adventure, but you don't seem to want to cooperate!"

"Maybe it's just that I don't want to be dragged around the school by an idiot who's still wearing his pajamas." Harry quickly looked down at himself, and realized that she was right; he **was** still wearing his pajamas.

"Hold on," he said, dashing up the stairs to the boy's dormitory. "I'll get dressed, get Ron, and **then** we'll have an adventure.

Fifteen minutes later, Harry came down the stairs wearing normal clothes, but also wearing a puzzled frown.

"Where's Ron?" Harry looked at her, and scratched the back of his head.

"Well…"

"Well, what?"

"It seems that Ron is… incapable of joining us today. Seems that he ate a wonky Canary Cream. Usually they wear off in a little while, but it's already been a whole night, and he's **still** flapping around!"

Ginny blinked at him… once… twice. Then she said, "All right, then. We'll just have to have an adventure without him. But--" she was interrupted by the loud grumbling of Harry's stomach.

"Er… do you mind if we get some breakfast before we have an adventure?" Ginny rolled her eyes to the ceiling.

"… Fine. Let's just go."

"Eww…"  
As soon as they had opened the double doors leading to the Great Hall, a foul stench of rotting cabbage had reached their nostrils.

"What the heck?"

Even more disturbing was what was inside. A thick, orange goop covered the floor, covered the tables, and covered the teachers who were ushering goop-covered students towards a corner so that they might be hosed down. The stuff came up around their knees, and was so thick they could barely walk in it. When Harry and Ginny had opened the door, the smelly, orangey, green speckled substance had sloshed out at their feet. Ginny jumped back in horror.

"No! Mum finally buys me new shoes, and now they're covered in orange goo!"

At her outraged scream, Professor McGonagall, with a handkerchief covering her nose, came sloshing out to them.

"Mr. Potter… Ms. Weasley… I'm afraid the Great Hall will be closed for the day. As you can see, we're having a few…" A scream came from behind her, followed by a thunderous crash. McGonagall rolled her eyes. "…minor difficulties. Food should be sent up to your common rooms in about an hour or so. Until then, would you please inform any students that you see of the situation? Thank you. If you'll excuse me?" and turning behind her, she yelled, "Alright Severus! Turn on the hose!" And she sloshed back into the room, closing the double doors behind her.

"O…kay?"

"Well," Harry said nervously, "we could still have an adventure in the mean time. Before heading back to the common room for breakfast."

Ginny looked at him like he was dense. "Or we **could** just go to the kitchens… after I wash this goop off of my shoes, that is."

"Heh. Right."

Luckily for Ginny, there was a girl's bathroom just around the corner.

"I'll just be a second," she told Harry before entering. The abandoned bathroom was a dark place, filled with cobwebs, and it was all she could do to find her way to the sinks. Ginny moved to turn on the water, when her ears pricked upon a whispering coming from outside the window. Temporarily abandoning her objective, she curiously snuck closer towards the slightly opened window.

"—_Do it. I can't imagine what he must be thinking. You should have just stuck to the **plan**. All you had to do was sneak into their common room, snip off a lock of his hair and come back! But what did you lot do? You turned him into a bloody chicken!_" With a start, Ginny realized that whoever was whispering was talking about her brother. She leaned in closer towards the window. There were a few mumbled apologies, before the first voice spoke again.

"_You shouldn't be apologizing to me—try apologizing to the Dark Lord when you tell him you botched everything up_!" At that precise moment, a loud knocking came from outside the Girl's bathroom door.

"Oi, Ginny! Is everything okay in there?" The harsh whispering suddenly came to a dead halt.

"_What was that_?"

"_Someone's in that room_."

Ginny slapped her hand to her forehead before barreling out of the loo, and tackling Harry to the ground. Harry looked up at her, bewilderedly. "Er…"

"You idiot, Harry!" Ginny took him by the shoulders and shook him. "I was just stumbling onto a conspiracy that involved my brother, and you ruined it!"

"What…?"

"Gah!" Ginny growled in frustration, rolling off of him. "Ron didn't eat a wonky Canary Cream—someone snuck into your dormitory last night and turned him **into **a canary!"

"…What…?" Ginny punched him on the arm, before recounting what she'd just overheard.

"Whoa. Death Eaters? At Hogwarts?" Harry stood, and began to pace up and down the hallway, nervously rubbing his chin. "And why would they want Ron's hair…? Unless they wanted to make a Polyjuice Potion." Harry stopped dead in his tracks. "Ginny, come on. We've got to tell Dumbledore!" Without waiting for a response from her, Harry took off in the direction of Dumbledore's office. Ginny sighed.

"Here we go again…!" And she took off after him.


End file.
